


lazarus

by extinguish



Category: Magic Kaito, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Case Fic, M/M, Romance, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-12
Updated: 2018-07-12
Packaged: 2019-06-09 03:24:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15258357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/extinguish/pseuds/extinguish
Summary: Kaito finds himself in over his head when the mysterious Edogawa Conan returns to Japan after ten years, bringing trouble along with him.





	lazarus

It isn’t everyday that the Tokyo police department is quiet. Normally Kaito would appreciate the refreshing change, but he’d been due for a meeting with Nakamori over 20 minutes ago and his appreciation of the tranquility was trumped by his impatience. The whole department was nowhere to be seen, eerie quietness disturbed only by the ticking of a wall-hanging clock.

Kaito, slumped in the plastic chair outside of Nakamori’s office, is almost sure he hasn’t done anything this week to deserve this kind of karmic punishment. The plastic chair back digs into his shoulder blade mockingly.

“Whoever designed this chair must be a sadist,” Kaito mutters to himself, twisting around in an attempt to find a comfortable position.

Another long minute passes before there’s noise from outside. Kaito leaps out of the seat in relief as two detectives walk in—Tanabe, one of the detectives who’s been around as long as Kaito can remember, and a younger man he doesn’t recognize. Tanabe had been a rookie back when Kaito visited Aoko at the station after school. Now, he’s showing his age in the way he holds himself and the wrinkles forming at the corners of his eyes. Frown marks—not laughter lines, Kaito guesses. Tanabe had never been particularly genial person, even as a rookie.

The man Kaito doesn’t recognize flips the lightswitch on as he walks by, and Kaito takes that as his cue to make his presence known.

“Tanabe-san!” Kaito greets.

The two men whip their heads around in search of the voice, stopping abruptly in their tracks. Tanabe relaxes when he sees who it is.

“Kaito? What are you doing in the office alone? In the dark?”

“To be fair, I didn’t know it was empty when I got here. I’m waiting for Nakamori to come back,” Kaito eyes the young man next to Tanabe. “Is this your new partner?”

“Muranaka Takeshi,” The young man introduces himself, extending a hand out to Kaito.

“Kuroba Kaito.”

“Kaito is our tech specialist,” Tanabe says.

“Tech specialist…?”

“Yup!” Kaito grins. “I’m the one responsible for all the exploding pens and the flying cars.”

The young detective looks taken aback. “Exploding—”

Tanabe rolls his eyes. “He’s joking. He helps invent some of the more bizarre investigative tools we use. No exploding pens so far.”

“Ah,” Muranaka says, looking relieved. “It’s nice to meet you, Kuroba-san.”

“You too. But—where is everyone? Nakamori was supposed to meet me here half an hour ago.”

Tanabe walks over to his desk, slapping a case file down on the wood. “You didn’t hear? We have an unexpected guest today. Nakamori’s downstairs dealing with him.”

“Guest?”

“Yeah. You might remember him, actually. Edogawa Conan?”

“Conan?” The name’s unusual enough to ring a bell, but Kaito can’t quite remember why.

“Ah, maybe you weren’t around back then. He’s hard to forget. Smartass seven-year old? Wore big glasses and a bow-tie, had a habit of wandering onto crime scenes?”

_"Oh!”_ His brain finally makes the connection. Kaito remembers him, but not from the precinct. Edogawa Conan attended a few of Kaitou Kid’s heists before abruptly dropping off the map. Kaito had almost looked him up once to check in on him, but figured a kid was better off doing kid things without him meddling. Hopefully he’d found more age-appropriate activities to do than chasing phantom thieves, as good as he was at doing it. “I think I met him once or twice.”

“What was a seven year-old doing at a crime scene?” Muranaka asks.

Tanabe shrugs. “Don’t ask me. He was always sneaking around somewhere, always asking too many questions. Creepy kid—smart for his age, definitely, but a little too comfortable around dead bodies for my liking.”

“It’s been ten years,” Kaito points out. “Why is he here now?”

“Well he was off in America, apparently. Left a few months after he showed up here and stayed there until a few days ago. Said he’s in town for a wedding? Oh, and get this—he’s a dead-ringer for his cousin now.”

_Dead-ringer_ is a poor way to phrase that, Kaito thinks.

“You knew his cousin?” Muranaka asks.

“Everybody did. You’ve probably heard of him, actually—Shinichi Kudo?”

“Ah!” Muranaka snaps his fingers. “I remember him. He’s the high-schooler who disappeared during a case, right? That was huge news back when I was in elementary school. My parents followed the story. They never did end up finding his body.“

“Presumed dead,” Tanabe agrees, shaking his head. “Sad story. He was so young. You remember that, Kaito?”

Kaito does remember—there’s one memory more vivid than the others, of a woman about his age grabbing his shoulder so hard her fingers had left bruises, face pale as alabaster and looking like she’d seen a ghost.

Kaito had been crossing the street at the time, remembers the noise of all the surrounding cars and people being eclipsed somehow by that girl’s quiet, grief-filled voice.

_“Shinichi?”_

“Kuroba-san?”

Kaito looks up to find Tanabe and Muranaka staring at him with twin looks of confusion.

“Sorry,” He grins sheepishly. “Got lost in my head for a second there. Yeah, I remember him. He was my age. Never met him, though. Say, did Conan say what he was doing inside the station?”

Kaito doesn’t find out, because the office door swings open then and Nakamori walks in with a few other detectives trailing behind him. He looks exhausted, but not unhappy to see Kaito. As impatient as he was feeling earlier, Kaito almost wishes he’d waited just a few more minutes to show up so he could settle the uncomfortable feeling that arose from all the surfacing memories.

“Sorry, kid. Something came up,” Nakamori grumbles vaguely as he trudges into his office. “You have something to show me?”

“Oh, yeah!” Kaito follows him inside, trying his best to forget about the earlier conversation. “So, I think I’ve solved your cell phone jammer problem.”

  
  
  


 

 

The meeting is, unsurprisingly, shorter than normal. Nakamori is clearly still distracted by whatever issue arose earlier in the day, and Kaito doesn’t actually have anything physical to show him yet. They call it a day after Kaito’s done pitching his idea and gets both the timeline and the budget approval he needs. Tanabe and Muranaka are also gone by the time he leaves Nakamori’s office, so any chance he had of snooping into the Edogawa Conan situation is lost.

Kaito walks down the hallway, checking the bus times on his phone idly. He could probably catch the earlier bus if he leaves now, but he’s not too eager to wait outside in the midday heat on the off chance he misses it.

Just as Kaito is closing out of the app, he turns the corner and collides, quite literally, into a ghost.

Kaito hasn’t seen a photo of Kudo Shinichi in years, but it feels like he’s looking at one now—a bit more gaunt, maybe, and the man’s hair is longer and curlier than Kaito remembers Kudo Shinichi’s hair being on the news, but the spectacles are lodged far enough down on his nose from the collision that Kaito can’t help but notice the resemblance.

For the second time that day, Kaito recalls the pale face of Kudo Shinichi’s girlfriend as he stares down at who can only be Edogawa Conan, sprawled on the ground with an array of papers fanned around him on the floor.

Tanabe hadn’t been exaggerating when he called him a dead-ringer for his cousin. Of course, Kaito thinks morbidly, Conan is older now than Shinichi Kudo probably ever was. The thought leaves him feeling slightly ill.

Conan is still staring wide-eyed at him even as Kaito bends down to help pick up the fallen papers. The movement seems to shake him out of his trance, though, and Conan quickly leans down to help.

“Sorry,” He mutters. “I wasn’t looking where I went.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Kaito smiles reassuringly, handing over his stack of collected papers. “I wasn’t paying attention either. And, sorry, but are you Edogawa Conan?”

Conan freezes for a moment before accepting Kaito’s papers. When he looks back at Kaito his expression is guarded. “Have we met?”

“Uh, it was a long time ago. You probably don’t remember me,” Kaito stands up and offers Conan a hand, but Conan pushes himself off the floor instead. Kaito drops his hand awkwardly. “I’m Kuroba Kaito.”

Conan is still peering at him suspiciously. “You look too young to have been on the force for that long.”

“I wasn’t. I was still in high school back then. You know Nakamori, right?” Conan nods slowly. “I’ve been friends with his daughter for ages. She came here to visit him a lot, so I was always wandering around the station even when I wasn’t supposed to be.”

That’s not how he knows Conan, of course, but there’s no way even a genius would remember every face he came in contact with at a police station ten years ago.

“Ah,” Conan’s frame relaxes, apparently satisfied with that answer. “I know a little something about that, which I guess you’d remember if you met me back then. You’re a policeman now?”

“A police consultant, actually. I don’t technically work in this building. I just swing by occasionally to drop off new tech for the department.”

“Oh,” Conan acknowledges. “Sorry for the misunderstanding. I didn’t know there was a department for that.”

“Not until I came along. Like I said, I’m friends with the chief’s daughter, so I’ve known their family my whole life. I’m a magician, originally, but I’ve always fiddled around with different machines trying to engineer things to improve my tricks. Sort of developed a knack for it after a while.”

Kaito reaches behind Conan’s ear and produces a bouquet from his sleeve. Conan’s eyes widen almost imperceptibly behind his frames, but he accepts the flowers wordlessly.

“Anyway, Nakamori proposed the idea after watching one of my shows. He said one of my tricks reminded him of something that could be useful out in the field, much as he hated to admit that,” Kaito smiles, remembering how red Nakamori’s face had been when he’d suggested it. “I still love performing, of course, but it’s nice to be able to do something to help the public once in a while. I’m sure as a detective you understand that.”

“It’s...rewarding,” Conan says. He opens his mouth as if to say something else, but closes it instead, and holds out the bouquet for Kaito to take. “Sorry, you must be busy. I should really let you go.”

Kaito holds up his hands defensively. “No, you’re fine! I don’t have any plans today, anyway. I could always give you a tour of the precinct if you’d like.”

Conan smiles wryly as he looks around. “It doesn’t look like it’s changed much in ten years.”

“Only some things,” Kaito admits. “But there’s this really great room I helped throw together for all the new tech—”

_“Conan!”_

They both turn their head at the sound. A girl about Conan’s age with short hair and a sour expression is waiting at the opposite end of the hallway. With a hand perched on her hip, she’s the perfect embodiment of impatience.

“Sorry,” Conan apologizes, bowing quickly and shoving the bouquet back into Kaito’s hands. “I have to go drop off my statement. It was nice meeting you, Kuroba-san.”

The girl punches Conan’s arm when he joins her and the two of them bicker in low voices until they turn the corner, out of Kaito’s sight. For the second time that day, Kaito is left with more questions than answers. _Statement,_ Conan had said. Well, at least Kaito knew where to start.

  
  
  


 

 

“I’m not helping you stalk a witness.”

It’s a testament to Kaito’s perseverance that he travels all the way out to Aoko’s apartment on her off day to find information rather than wait another day for her to go to the office. Or, Kaito supposes, a testament to his stupidity, seeing as she’s not giving up any information.

“I’m not _stalking_ him,” Kaito complains. “I’m just...trying to satisfy my curiosity.”

“Okay,” Aoko rolls her eyes. “I’m not helping you satisfy your curiosity, then.”

“Aoko.”

“Kaito,” Aoko counters. “You’re not even a detective. You just work at the police station sometimes. Why should I give you any information about this?”

“You’re not a detective either! You work in forensics.”

“Sure, but the difference between us,” Aoko gestures between them as if Kaito is too stupid to understand what ‘us’ means. “Is that I’m authorized to know this information, and you are not.”

“Look, can’t you just—”

"Kaito,” Aoko repeats slowly. “Conan is 18. Do you understand why I might not want to be giving out personal information about him?”

“God, Aoko,” Kaito says, actually offended. “I just want to know why he was there. It’s not like I’m trying to…”

He’s actually not sure how to end that sentence. Instead, he just looks to Aoko with hopeful eyes, trying to come across as innocent as he can.

“Please?”

“You know, you’re such a nuisance!” Aoko groans. “Fine, I’ll tell you. But _only_ because I know you’re going to find out anyway even if I don’t say anything, and I’d rather you didn’t start flirting with Ayumi again. I think she’s starting to get her hopes up.”

“Ayumi-chan is basically a child,” Kaito says, offended once again. “I can’t help that I’m so charming my mere conversational skills are interpreted as—”

“Kaito,” Aoko interrupts. “Do you want me to tell you or not?”

“Yeah, sure. Just stop making baseless accusations.”

“I’m not—” Aoko cuts herself off, sighing deeply. “Alright, here’s that super important information you’re after. Edogawa Conan flew into Tokyo from New York about two days ago. This morning, he stumbled across an active crime scene and called it in to the police. He noticed some details about the crime scene that seemed off, and the detectives arrested somebody on his tip. He swung by the station afterward to drop off his statement, which is where I guess you ran into him and then decided you’d be a nosy pain in my ass.”

“Huh,” Kaito contemplates, ignoring the last dig. “That’s it?”

“That’s it,” Aoko nods.

“Then why was your dad in such a mood?”

“My dad’s always in a mood. I think,” Aoko pauses. “Look, don’t tell him I said this, but I think he’s just nervous he’s going to get upstaged by another teenage detective.”

“He’s worried about another Hakuba?”

“I think he’s worried about another _Kudo.”_

Kaito thinks about the encounter earlier, and Conan’s strange, piercing gaze and—yeah, he might understand that.

“Okay, sure,” Kaito concedes. “But Edogawa’s just in town for a wedding, right? That shouldn’t be enough time for him to really make a nuisance of himself.”

“Dad doesn’t seem to think so. Apparently, he just graduated from University in the spring. His girlfriend, too. Dad thinks they’re probably going to use the wedding as an excuse to spend some time back here in Japan.”

“Oh,” Kaito’s not sure what to make of all that. “Well, I can’t fault his logic I guess. That girlfriend of his, is it the one with the scary-looking face?”

Aoko shrugs. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen either of them yet. I’m just going off of what I heard. They might not even be dating, anyway. You know how my dad is—always thinks any boy and girl who spend time together are dating.”

Aoko looks at him pointedly then, and Kaito can’t help but laugh. “Yeah.”

Nakamori spent most of their adolescence assuming the two of them were dating, and just as much time assuring Kaito he’d never be good enough for his daughter. He’d been more than relieved when Aoko reassured him that no, she and Kaito were not dating, and no, they never would.

_“Not in a million years,”_ Aoko had said, actually, which Kaito still thought was a little harsh.

“Alright, are you done interrogating me now?”

“Yeah,” Kaito laughs again. “Sorry. You know how I get. Can’t let go of my curiosity once something’s caught my attention.”

“You grew up around too many detectives,” Aoko scolds. “Now, how about you repay my kindness by cooking me dinner?”

“Of course,” Kaito says, kneeling down and offering Aoko a rose out of his sleeve. “A romantic evening? Anything for my darling!”

“Gross!” Aoko laughs, chucking the flower away.

“Hey, careful! Red roses are expensive, you know.”

“Stop whining, you baby. I’ll tell dad to add it to your stipend.”

  
  
  


 

 

The following week welcomes in a heatwave and a series of complications along with it.

First it’s the air conditioning, blowing warm air into Kaito’s apartment and waking him at an ungodly hour. Broken filter, Kaito realizes after a quick inspection at 3 a.m. It takes a few hours after that to fall back asleep in the oppressive heat, and when he wakes up next it’s to a voicemail telling him that the part he needs to build the jammer detector for Nakamori won’t be available for another few weeks.

“I used to be lucky,” Kaito grumbles to himself, lying face-down in his bed. He runs his thumb over the four-leaf clover charm attached to his keychain.

The charm had been his father’s—a four-leaf clover preserved forever in resin, with an inscription at the bottom. _Depend on the rabbit’s foot if you will, but remember it didn’t work for the rabbit._

There are days where Kaito regrets turning in his white cape and monocle for good, and they’re usually days like this—long stretches of routine broken up only by short bursts of stress, usually courtesy of his new job. He misses the warm nights when he would take his glider out on a tall building at the edge of town, riding updrafts until the sky glowed orange with the break of dawn.

It’s not as though his old life is out of the cards entirely. 28 is hardly old, despite what Kaito may think on the days he wakes up with a three-beer-hangover, although he can’t pull off all the stunts he used to be able to. His father was older than he is now when he was active as a thief. Not for the first time, Kaito wishes his father hadn’t left without imparting more wisdom first. He still wonders to this day if he would have been proud of Kaito for finishing what he started, or disappointed that he’d made the same mistakes.

It doesn’t matter now, Kaito supposes. The dead don’t speak.

He’s satisfied with all his Kaitou Kid business being settled, of course, but there are still days where it feels like something is missing—like there’s a piece missing to an old puzzle that he hasn’t been able to snap into place yet.

“Puzzle piece,” Kaito murmurs to himself, staring at the broken air conditioning unit on the floor to the side of his bed, and pushes all thoughts of his father and Kaitou Kid to the back of his mind. Some puzzles are easier to solve than others.

There isn’t much he can do about the air conditioning for now except take a long cold shower, which he does. The jammer will be another issue entirely. He resigns himself to a long, hot bus ride over to the police station, already anticipating Nakamori’s frustration at having his timeline disrupted.

What he’s not expecting is for Nakamori to not care at all.

When Kaito arrives, Nakamori has his nose buried in a stack of thick papers crowding his desk. He barely glances up when Kaito arrives and doesn’t bat an eye throughout Kaito’s entire explanation of the device’s delay.

“Mm,” He acknowledges gruffly. “That’s fine. Just bring me the prototype whenever you have it.”

“Sure,” Kaito agrees hurriedly, not wanting to question Nakamori’s unusual leniency but still not able to stop himself from pushing a little harder. “I’ll see you around, then?”

Nakamori doesn’t respond—possibly doesn’t even register that Kaito spoke at all. He’s still staring at the papers on his desk with that grim look on his face. It’s not unusual for Nakamori to be distracted by a case, Kaito thinks, but it is unusual for him to be distracted to the point where he isn’t angry. It needles at Kaito, curiosity burrowing under his skin like a pest.

_Odd,_ he thinks, shutting the door to Nakamori’s office. And, just like he always does when something gets under his skin, Kaito makes a quick beeline for the forensics department to find answers.

  
  
  


 

 

The door to Aoko’s office is shut, which usually signifies that actual important police work is being done, but Kaito ignores that, swinging the door open widely.

“Knock knock,” He says in lieu of actually knocking. Aoko is apparently startled enough to toss the pen in her hand at the intruder reflexively, which Kaito dodges with a neat side-step.

“Kaito!” Aoko says, eyes wide. “What are you doing here? And can you please knock for once? I almost killed you!”

“I’ve seen your attempts at hitting targets in the shooting range. I think I’m safe,” He teases, already ducking to avoid the second pen thrown at him. “Hey, chill out! I’m sensitive today. I hit a bit of a roadblock for my new device.”

“Let me guess—it’s an idiot-detector and it only points south? I hate to break this to you but I don’t think it’s broken, Kaito.”

“Ha ha, very funny,” Kaito rolls his eyes. “No, it’s the thing I’m working on for your old man. I won’t have the part I need for another two weeks.”

“Yikes,” Aoko winces. “You already told my dad, I’m assuming?”

“Yup, and get this! He told me it was _fine.”_

“So? That’s good news.”

“Aoko,” Kaito says slowly. “He didn’t get mad. Like, at _all.”_

“Okay, that _is_ slightly out of character,” Aoko admits, shaking her head. “But he’s probably just distracted by the most recent—wait, is that why you’re here?”

“You mean, to see my oldest, most dearest friend? Of course!” Kaito smiles disarmingly. Unsurprisingly, it doesn’t work.

_“Riiight,”_ Aoko drawls. “Likely story. You only drop by when you’re trying to steal my lunch or grill me for information you don’t legally have access to.”

“Hey, I’ve gotten better at packing my lunch!”

“So you admit that you’re trying to snoop again?”

“Didn’t you hear what I said earlier? I told your dad that my device would be two weeks late and he didn’t even so much as _glare_ at me,” Kaito explains. “You can’t blame me for wanting to know why.”

“Right,” Aoko sighs. “Look, I don’t even have the details yet. All I know is that something happened last night and because of that, some of my department stayed late. They left before I got here this morning and I haven’t had a chance to take a look at everything yet. Happy?”

“Sure, sure. I’m perfectly satisfied,” Kaito says agreeably. “Is Ayumi-chan in?”

“So you can interrogate her instead?” Aoko smirks. “I can see right through you, idiot. Well, you’re fresh out of luck. She took her lunch break early to meet with some friends.”

Kaito smiles back, unaffected, and settles into the chair against the wall across from Aoko’s desk. “I can wait.”

It turns out the universe still has some luck left for Kaito after all—Ayumi walks in just seconds later, with two startlingly familiar faces in tow.

“Aoko-san!” She greets cheerily, guiding Edogawa Conan and his girlfriend in through the doorway. “These are the friends I was telling you about! I hope you don’t mind. I brought them over so they could see the office.”

“Ah—” Aoko smiles weakly, before glaring at Kaito. “That’s fine. I have an _acquaintance_ here, myself.”

_"Acquaintance!”_ Kaito grabs his heart dramatically, doubling over in fake agony. “After all these years? Aoko, that hurts!”

“Kuroba-san!” Ayumi turns and smiles as she finally notices his presence. The other two regard him with muted looks of surprise. “It’s been a while! How have you been? Ah, sorry, I should introduce you to my friends.”

Ayumi opens her mouth to start the introductions but Kaito cuts her off before she can.

“We’ve met. Well, sort of. I didn’t catch your name last time,” Kaito stands, offering a hand to the cold-faced girl beside Conan.

“Haibara,” Is all she says, but she shakes his hand firmly. Her voice is softer than he’d imagined.

Ayumi looks between them, brows pulled close together on her forehead. “You’ve met?”

Conan nods. “I ran into Kuroba-san at the station while I was turning in my statement last week.”

“Oh! What a small world,” Ayumi says as she throws her arms around her friends’ shoulders. “The three of us went to elementary school together back in Beika City! Well, at least we did right up until they ditched me for America.”

“It’s not like we ditched you specifically,” Conan mutters, which is definitely the wrong thing to say because Ayumi switches her friendly-arm-around-shoulder to something that looks more like a wrestling hold.

“What the— _ow!”_ Conan yelps, fruitlessly attempting to pry her arm from his neck. “It’s not like we didn’t keep in touch!”

“Yeah, no thanks to you!”

“I was busy! Hey, why are you only strangling me? Haibara moved to America, too!”

_“Haibara_ replied to my emails more than once a year!” Ayumi finally lets go of Conan, who stumbles back toward Haibara, hand rubbing at the red mark forming on his neck.

“It was more than once a year,” He mutters.

_"Anyway,”_ Ayumi says pointedly. “I wanted to show you around the department. This is where I’m interning! Aoko-san has been doing a great job of helping me out with all the basics so far.”

“She’s a great student,” Aoko compliments. “Whatever detective group you all were in as kids definitely gave her good investigative instincts. Our other intern just complained to me that she’s decimating the curve in their organic chemistry lecture.”

“I wouldn’t say _decimating._ Oh! Ai-chan, that reminds me. I’m studying non-aqueous solvents right now in one of my classes and I was wondering if you could help me with a few things,” Ayumi says, face turning slightly pink. “Only if you have time, of course!”

Haibara glances at Conan. “Actually, Conan and I were just about to—”

“Kuroba-san owes me a tour of the precinct,” Conan interrupts, to Kaito’s surprise. “If he’s not too busy, I could give you two chemistry nerds some alone time.”

“That’d be great!” Ayumi clasps her hands together, missing Haibara’s glare at a smug Conan entirely. “You don’t mind, do you Kuroba-san?”

Kaito blinks at Conan, sure he’s missing something but not quite sure what. “No, not at all.”

“Great!” Conan says, smirking at Haibara as he pulls the office door open. “Take as much time as you need!”

They’re out the door before Kaito even registers what’s happening. Once the door is firmly shut behind them he stares at Conan, wordlessly, for an explanation.

“Sorry about that,” Conan apologizes, though he doesn’t look at all like he regrets anything.

“It’s fine, just sort of abrupt. Last time we talked it didn’t seem like you wanted a tour.”

“I don’t. Well—didn’t. It was sort of an excuse. No offense to you, but I saw more police stations  than I’ve ever cared to by my eighth birthday,” Conan says drily, and then looks at Kaito with something resembling guilt. “Sorry, that was darker than I intended.”

Kaito waves it off. “I work in a police station. I wouldn’t be here still if I was scared off by a little gallows humor.”

They head down the hall, Kaito glancing over at Conan every so often. He wonders if it’s the glare of his glasses that make it so hard to get a read on Conan, or if that’s just the side-effect of someone dealing with murderers since they were seven years old.

Kaito clears his throat. “So, are you trying to avoid Ayumi-chan or something?”

“Or something,” Conan says, and then stares consideringly at Kaito for a moment. “Can you keep a secret?”

Kaito almost laughs at the idea, but manages to mime zipping his lips closed.

“Ayumi has a bit of a crush on Haibara,” Conan explains. “I like to tease Haibara about it. She’ll kill me later for leaving the two of them alone together, of course, but it’s worth it.”

“And you’re okay with that?”

Conan eyes Kaito like he thinks he’s an idiot. “Well, _yeah._ It’s not like she’ll _actually_ kill me.”

“No, I mean—the crush.”

Conan’s look morphs into confusion. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You and Haibara…” Kaito gestures vaguely, not sure how to continue as he realizes that he’d probably over-stepped.

“Oh, _that._ Haibara and I aren’t dating.”

“Ah,” Kaito says, scratching his neck awkwardly. “Sorry for assuming.”

Conan shrugs. “I don’t care. We get it enough, believe me.”

They turn the corner, passing a small room of vending machines that Conan looks at dismissively.

“The last time we spoke you said there was a room you put together, right?” Conan asks suddenly.

“Yeah,” Kaito says, honestly surprised that Conan had remembered. Though, he supposes, detectives tend to have a knack for remembering small details. “Did you want to see it?”

“Sure. It’s for all your inventions, right?” Kaito nods, and Conan continues. “One of my family friends was an inventor. He used to make me all sorts of odd devices. I sort of miss getting to see all of them, no matter how impractical the majority of them were.”

“Used to?” Kaito feels like he’s toeing around landmines with every new turn in conversation. Thankfully, Conan shakes his head dismissively.

“He didn’t die if that’s what you think. He’s just retired. Last time we spoke I think he was heading off on a three month Alaskan cruise.”

“Sounds nice.”

Conan shrugs. “Sure, if you can stand being idle that long. Have you ever read David Foster Wallace’s _A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again?”_

Before Kaito has a chance to respond, Conan stops suddenly. Kaito almost runs into him, stopping just short of hitting Conan’s shoulder.

“Edogawa-san?” Conan doesn’t respond, and Kaito looks around for whatever the distraction is but finds nothing.

The hallway they’re standing in leads into several conference rooms, all of which are empty. There’s nobody in the hall, either. Still, something must have caught Conan’s attention because he’s standing just outside one of the office windows looking like he’s seen a ghost. Blinds hang in the windows to block any outsiders from looking in, but there’s a small gap between the shades, just wide enough for someone with an eye for detail to catch.

“What is it?” Kaito asks. Conan still doesn’t respond.

Kaito moves over to stand behind him, leaning over slightly to see through the gap in the blinds. It’s immediately obvious what caught Conan’s attention. Pushed to the side of the room is a corkboard littered with papers. Dead center is a photo of a man’s head, severed jaggedly at the neck. Kaito’s stomach turns. He’s worked at the station for years now, but he’s never gotten used to seeing dead bodies, even the ones in crime scene photos.

There are other pieces of evidence scattered around the board, but Kaito can’t seem to drag his eyes away from the man’s eyes.

Conan’s face is pale when he finally speaks. “What _is_ this?”

“That must be the new case Aoko was talking about,” Kaito says. He leans in closer to get a better look at the writing to the side of the photos. “Something about it has Nakamori all worked up.”

Conan still looks stricken as he stares unblinkingly at the photos. “I know them.”

_"_ _What?”_ Kaito turns to stare at Conan. “You know them?”

 “Not the victim—the killer,” Conan explains, and then shakes his head. He pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs. “I mean, I don’t _know_ them. I recognize that M.O. The severed heads. It was the case I was working on a while ago, before I left for Japan.”

“In the States?”

“Yeah, in New York,” Conan says. He still looks shaken when he turns to face Kaito. “Is Nakamori in?”

Kaito thinks back to Aoko’s warning about Nakamori not wanting to be upstaged by teenage detectives and hesitates for a moment. One more look at Conan’s pale face, though, and any hope Kaito had held about not being yelled at today goes out the window.

“He is, and he’s going to kill me,” Kaito says weakly, but he’s already leading Conan to Nakamori’s office.

Kaito shoves his hand in his pocket as they walk away, clutching the four-leaf clover in between his fingers like a lifeline.

**Author's Note:**

> hey!! this is my first time writing for detective conan but i've been a long-time fan of the series. hopefully everything in this chapter makes sense (i know...it's a lot of exposition lol). there will be more explanations to come in the following chapters about where the canon diverges/etc. but if there's anything too confusing i can answer questions. i'll also be adding character tags as i go along and the cast expands
> 
> thanks for reading! :)


End file.
